Triumph of artistic hirsutes or tutu much? Trocks' frock shock rocks
It looks and sounds like a joke: hairy men in tutus with names such as Vera Namethatunova and Maya Thickenthighya parodying some of ballet's best-loved classics. But dance revue Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, or 'the Trocks' as they're affectionately known, has made this one of the most sublime and longest-running jokes in contemporary dance.
Sit in the back row after wandering into a Trocks' show without your glasses, and you might mistake them for their more conventional namesake, the Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Then you slowly notice that the shoulders and legs of the ballerinas are a little too thick, and that some of them could do with a shave. And that's before the swans in Swan Lake start bumping into each other and squabbling over handsome Prince Siegfried.
Tchaikovsky might be turning in his grave, but what stops a Trocks' show from straying into pure knockabout farce is its reverence for the material and the amazing accuracy and skill of the dancers, who know their ballet like Quentin Tarantino knows his Hong Kong B movies. Even when a hairy ballerina is mercilessly mocking one of one of ballet's sacred solos, Michel Fokine's The Dying Swan, by slowly moulting feathers as he nears his demise, he does it with such aplomb, body perched improbably on tiny point shoes, that the audience is reduced to open-mouthed wonder. That has got to hurt.
'Yes, it's hard on the feet,' says long-time Trock dancer Fernando Medina, who joined the troupe in Barcelona and is part of a cast that hails from the four corners of the world. 'Men are heavier in the shoulders and upper legs, so there's more wear and tear for us. I'm starting to feel my 32 years of age. But we train hard because we want to look good. We don't want it to be irreverent or insulting because we love dancing so much. We never want to ridicule ballet.'
The Trocks' mix of slapstick, knowing camp and dance athleticism made them an instant cult hit when they debuted on the Manhattan gay scene in September 1974. They've since outlived most of their competitors and grown into a compact (just 16 dancers and three staff), well-honed touring machine, performing more than 40 tours in Europe, Australia, Canada, South America and Japan, where they've just finished their 20th annual run.
Next month, Hong Kong audiences will have a chance to see what all the fuss is about when the troupe celebrates its 30th anniversary with a run of dates at the Academy for Performing Arts' Lyric Theatre. What ballet purists in the city will make of it is anyone's guess.
Artistic director and ex-Trocks dancer Tori Dobrin says not everybody gets the joke. 'Yes, we've had some harsh reactions,' he says. 'The New York Times critic once said we were 'faggots making fools of ourselves in public'. But he came around, as most critics do. And who cares what the critics say, because audiences love us. If you know ballet and you're not restricted in your mentality, it's probably a little more fun. But we've played little towns in Italy where the audience didn't know what to expect and the children started laughing and changed the whole atmosphere. That's the kind of reaction we get.'
Dobrin says it's not hard to understand why the show is a success. 'It's fun and entertaining and the quality of dancing is top notch, which is why people are drawn to it,' he says. 'We get the widest possible array of society. We get women who love ballet and bring along their husbands, people who love dance, retirees in Florida, gays in New York, and kids everywhere.'
Children enjoy the more spectacular choreographic fireworks and slapstick episodes, such as when a muscle-bound ballerina is dropped by the male lead, who's forced to do push-ups as punishment, or when a sylph is propelled off stage by dancers who don't seem to know their own strength.
But older, more knowledgeable viewers are entertained by the show's witty take on the world of dance: the prima-donna surliness of the talent, the gritted teeth beneath the showbiz smiles and the way everybody gently draws the comedy out of some of ballet's more ponderous acts.
As it says in the Trocks' company history, the dancers offer faithful renditions of classic dance, but 'exaggerate its foibles, accidents and underlying incongruities'. Dorbin says they aim to walk this line between the sublime and the farcical. 'It's my job to draw the line when I think it goes over the edge,' he says. 'I'll look at it and then look at it again, and if I think it's gone over, I'll say no. Everyone on the show is pretty funny, so it's the job of a good director to stay out of the way and make the most of their talents.'
Medina says the creative humour of the cast is what makes the show such fun. 'It's the combination of dance and humour,' he says. 'My family was poor and we all loved joking around, so I grew up loving ballet and comedy. I thought Trocks would put these two sides of me together and I was right.'
One member of the cast especially looking forward to the Hong Kong performances is Carlos Garcia, who trained at Hong Kong's School of Dance. 'It's a kind of trip home for me, so I hope my old schoolmates will remember me and come to the show.' he says. 'The Hong Kong Ballet is really famous, so I'm sure they'll like what we do.'
Still, Medina says expert dance knowledge isn't necessary to enjoy the show. 'If you know classical ballet, you'll have a blast,' he says. 'And if you don't know classical ballet, I suggest you begin with us. This is the way to start.'
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Sep 14-18, 8pm, $250, $350, $450; Sep 18-19, 3pm, $200, $300, $400, APA Lyric Theatre. HK Ticketing.
